History of Computers - The Unimate

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Introduction

The Unimate (short for Universal Automation) was the first industrial robot patented by George Devol in 1954 and was developed with the help and financial support of Joseph Engelberger.

Overview

The Unimate was first an idea for a mechanical arm designed by George Devol. George Devol met Joseph Engleberger, who was a director at Consolidated Controls Corp. (Condec subsidiary), at a cocktail party in 1956, where they discussed his Devol's latest invention. Engleberger was fascinated and a year later in 1957, convinced Condec's CEO to sponsor the development of Devol's invention. Two years after in 1959, Devol and Engleberger produced the Unimate #001.

The-Unimate-robot-was-the-first-modern-industrial-robot-and-was-used-for-material.png

However, many companies did not buy into the idea of robots at first. Devol and Engleberger worked hard to promote their robot, focusing on employing the Unimate to do tasks that were considered dangerous to humans. In 1961, General Motors installed the Unimate at an assembly line in a diecasting plant in Trenton, New Jersey.[1] The Unimate sequenced and stacked pieces of die-cast metal by using it's 4,000 pound arm and obeying step by step commands stored on a magnetic drum.[2] Quickly, the Unimate began being mass produced for factory automation.

After it's initial success, Engleberger established Unimation Inc., which was an extension of Condec Corp. He established this new wing of Condec Corp. to develop the new robotics industry he created. By 1996, the Unimate was being manufactured worldwide.

Significance

Thanks to the Unimate, robots now are widely used in factories that manufacture products like cars. Furthermore, the Unimate not only paved the way for industrial robots, it also paved the way for a new industry: robots that can do any service for humans.

Terms used

Diecasting 
A industrial process for producing metal parts. [3]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.robotics.org/joseph-engelberger/unimate.cfm
  2. ↑ http://my.ilstu.edu/~kldevin/Introduction_to_robotics2/Introduction_to_robotics6.html
  3. ↑ http://www.paceind.com/die-casting-101/die-casting-faqs/what-is-die-casting/

Citation

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimate
  2. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/unimate-the-story-of-george-devol-and-the-first-robotic-arm/243716/
  3. Picture of the Unimate
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